At least one terrorist, suspected of killing Sikh community members, was killed in a Peshawar operation, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police’s Counter Terrorism Department said on Monday. They added that another suspect was arrested.
“The killed terrorist was identified as Zafar, who was an Afghan national while the arrested terrorist was identified as Amin Ullah,” Additional Inspector General of Police Shaukat Abbas told a press conference in Peshawar on Monday. “The terrorists carried out target killings of religious scholars, Sikh community and other minorities.”
AIG of Police Abbas was accompanied by Chief City Police Officer Peshawar Syed Ashfaq Anwar at the press conference.
He said that law enforcement agencies have traced the gang, which is “part of the banned Da’esh organisation”. The police have targeted 38 people in the investigations and have arrested several suspected terrorists, he added.
The terrorists were involved in the targeted killing of four scholars, three Sikhs, two Christians and one Shia from March to June, he stated.
He said that the target killings started in March and nine such crimes have been reported. The killings were carried out on a single pattern, using one weapon, Abbas added.
Last month, Sikh community came under renewed pressure when assailants began targeting the community members in Peshawar.
A Sikh trader, identified as Manmohan Singh, was shot dead when unidentified motorcyclists opened fire at him in Peshawar on June 24.
He was going home in a rickshaw when the assailants killed him. This was the second attack after a Sikh community member was killed in Peshawar when unidentified men on a motorcycle opened fire at him in Peshawar’s Guldara a day earlier.
The target killing and unrest are reportedly forcing the KP Sikhs to migrate south and abroad.
“The population of Sikhs was more than 35,000 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, however, due to target killing and unrest most of the families have migrated to Punjab or abroad,” Ridesh Singh in Pakistan’s northwestern province told Aaj Digital last month.
